An objective of pistachio breeding programs is to develop improved male pollinators of the female pistachio variety ‘Kerman’ (not patented). The female pistachio variety ‘Kerman’ is the main later-season pistachio cultivar grown in California and in other parts of the world. The male pistachio variety ‘Peters’ (not patented) is a common male cultivar used as a pollen source to pollinate ‘Kerman’. Although ‘Peters’ is viewed as the industry standard pollinator variety for ‘Kerman’, ‘Peters’ often flowers later than ‘Kerman’ and has a history of providing poor flowering overlap with ‘Kerman’. This poor flowering overlap is especially seen during years with insufficient chilling. Even in seasons of sufficient chilling, ‘Peters’ is not very precocious, meaning that ‘Peters’ is slow to produce flowers as a juvenile tree. This is particularly apparent when ‘Peters’ is compared to female ‘Kerman’ trees, which will have many flowers at 6th or 7th leaf, while ‘Peters’ trees will have either none or relatively few. Typically, the female variety ‘Kerman’ is approximately one year ahead of the male variety ‘Peters’ in terms of flower development, which results in a year of lost production. Further, in low chill years, ‘Peters’ has performed very poorly. In some young orchards, ‘Peters’ produced almost no flowers, the flowers that were produced had no pollen, and ‘Peters’ often bloomed 1-2 weeks later than ‘Kerman’. Over time, the use of ‘Peters’ has resulted in inadequate pollination of ‘Kerman’ and reduced yield potential.
Pistachio growers are in need of a male pistachio variety that is more precocious than ‘Peters’, performs better in low chill years, and has a better flowering overlap with the female variety ‘Kerman’. Thus, there exists a need for improved pollinator varieties, such as male varieties having improved flowering overlap with ‘Kerman’. The present male pistachio variety ‘Famoso’ described herein is a product of the breeding efforts to produce improved male pistachio varieties.